Determination of roll compaction parameters required for high green density, defect free Ti-6Al-4V strips

Direct powder rolling (DPR) is an unconventional powder metallurgy technique for fabricating flat mill products. It offers significant cost reduction by using low processing temperatures and reduced fabrication steps compared to ingot metallurgy. Roll compaction is the first stage in the DPR process, hence proper selection of roll compaction parameters is vital for achieving high density defect free (no visible cracks, alligatoring or centre split) green compacts. Unsuitable roll compaction parameters can result in fragile low green density strips which could be difficult to handle during subsequent processing or high green density strips with defects. The focus of this study was therefore, to determine the range of roll compaction parameters required in producing high density, defect free strips. The Ti-6Al-4V strips studied were produced by mixing 150 μm titanium hydride de-hydride powder with a 45 μm 60Al40V master alloy. The powder mix was roll compacted at varying roll gaps and rolling speeds. The compacted strips were evaluated by measuring the green strip density and thickness. It was concluded that for the Ti-6Al-4V powder studied in this work, the preferred roll compaction parameters for achieving high density, defect-free green strips are 0.3 mm to 0.5 mm roll gap with roll speeds from 3 rpm to 10 rpm. (paper)